Get out your crayons! Today, courtesy of Aaron Higgins, who through his Retro Reprints archive of classic coloring books, is allowing me to share selected pages from this jaw-dropping 1963 Bob Clampett Coloring Book.
Clampett, my favorite cartoon director, was a master at licensing and exploiting his characters through toys and comic books. He was also quite good at promoting his name and likeness. Despite his numerous swipes at Walt Disney in his Beany and Cecil cartoons (and earlier Warner Bros. cartoons), Clampett must have looked to Disney as role model for animation success. If Disney (or even Walter Lantz) were becoming as famous as their creations – why not Bob Clampett? He had already introduced himself to the audience through his “appearance” in the opening titles of the Funday Funnies show.
Check out these selected pages from the coloring book, officially titled Bob Clampett TV Stars Pictures To Color. It’s a family affair with Clampett himself, Baby Ruthy, son Robbie, wife Sody and others in beautiful images drawn by Willie Ito. The complete coloring book is 82 pages and available for download through Aaron’s Retro Reprints page. Here are some of the highlights:
Jerry Beck is a writer, animation producer, college professor and author of more than 15 books on animation history. He is a former studio exec with Nickelodeon Movies and Disney, and has written for The Hollywood Reporter and Variety. He has curated cartoons for DVD and Blu-ray compilations and has lent his expertise to dozens of bonus documentaries and audio commentaries on such. Beck is currently on the faculty of CalArts in Valencia, UCLA in Westwood and Woodbury University in Burbank – teaching animation history. More about Jerry Beck [
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LOVE THIS!
Cecil looks like a combination of his cartoon self and the wrinkly hand puppet from “Time for Beany”
This is nice. That said, I have to confess that I’ve never liked the Beany and Cecil cartoons as well as I think I’m supposed to. They’re certainly better than average as made-for-TV cartoons go, and I find them pleasant enough, if somewhat repetitious. I’ve just never found them as falling-off-my-stool hilarious as some people do.
Coloring books have their own requirements in terms of open areas for coloring, lack of detail, elimination of confusing outlines, and absolutely no cutting figures arms or hands off (because children aren’t sophisticated enough to understand why those limbs would be missing, and would be traumatized–at least that’s what the Whitman coloring-book editor told me). Ito worked well under these restrictions, but if you want some less-diluted and more on-model Ito, seek out the 1962-63 Dell comics. They are quite wonderful.
(because children aren’t sophisticated enough to understand why those limbs would be missing, and would be traumatized–at least that’s what the Whitman coloring-book editor told me)
That’s twisted! I use to love seeing that as I kinda wonder what world are they in that I can only see a fraction of.
I have a Beany and cecil coloring book from 1962 ive been trying for weeks of research to find some info on it. like its value if its rare or not, but I cant pull up anything on it. can anyone help.if you wanna see the cover email me at floblk4300@gmail.com